Trump Judges Just Saved Arizona from Non-Citizen Voting… and America With It

With the GOP’s latest election integrity victory, more proof that President Trump’s judicial nominees may be his most enduring legacy

If outsourcing our right to vote to non-citizens is the latest scheme to rock the election integrity world, conservatives just scored an earth-shattering victory in a critical swing state that’ll set the Left back years, and could prove key to Trump’s victory this November.

And the best part: We owe it all to the infamously liberal 9th “Circus” Court and the presidential frontrunner, Donald J. Trump.

First, though, a bit of background.

Arizona is surprisingly unique in that it has two tracks of registered voters: Those who receive a “full ballot” with all local, state, and federal races; and a smaller portion who may only vote in federal races, such as U.S. Senate and president, both of which dominate the battleground state in 2024.

The difference lies in how these individuals registered to vote.

State law sensibly mandates Arizonans prove their citizenship before voting in state or local races. Most Arizonans register using the state form, which by law requires documented proof of citizenship and rejects applications that don’t.

But past court cases have blocked state officials from rejecting individuals who register using the national form—created by the 1993 National Voter Registration Act—but fail to provide documented proof of citizenship. Instead, they are only blocked from voting in state and local races, not federal races, hence the term “federal-only” voters.

Here’s the scary part: There’s little deterring non-citizens, including those living here illegally, from exploiting this loophole and voting for the future president of the United States.

A Battle Going Back Years

In 2022, Arizona’s Republican legislature and governor passed HB 2492 amending state law to require “satisfactory evidence of citizenship” before registering to vote either as a “full ballot” voter or a “federal-only” voter, a courageous attempt to sew up this dangerous loophole.

Unfortunately, Democrats took over the governor’s mansion in the 2022 midterms, installing the hard-left Adrian Fontes as secretary of state responsible for overseeing Arizona’s elections.

Leftist groups—including Mi Familia Vota, LULAC, and the Democratic National Committee—immediately filed hostile lawsuits against Fontes’ office challenging HB 2492’s provisions, particularly the one requiring registrants to prove their citizenship.

The Left’s lawsuits were later consolidated into a single May 2024 ruling by District Judge Susan R. Bolton, a Bill Clinton nominee infamous for issuing the 2017 criminal contempt order against Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and striking down Arizona’s 2010 anti-sanctuary city law (SB 1070).

In that May 2024 ruling, Bolton ordered that HB 2492’s “mandate to reject” any Arizona voter registration form submitted “without accompanying Documented Proof of Citizenship . . . may not be enforced given the LULAC Consent Decree.” The “consent decree” refers to a 2018 court order requiring the state to register anyone who fails to provide documented proof of citizenship as a “federal-only” voter, itself the product of a lawsuit by one of the groups (LULAC) responsible for the May 2024 decision.

Put plainly, because of that 2018 LULAC consent decree, Bolton forced Arizona to once more “register eligible State Form users without DPOC [Documented Proof of Citizenship] for federal elections”—much to the far Left’s delight.

There are at least 32,487 federal-only voters in Arizona (and likely more), most of them concentrated on college campuses where Joe Biden and Adrian Fontes have targeted mass voter registration campaigns at taxpayer expense.

Most vote—and are registered 2:1 Democrat over Republican. Considering Biden’s 2020 margin of victory was just under 11,000 votes, that’s more than enough to decide close races like that between Kari Lake and Ruben Gallego for Senate.

(RELATED: Adrian Fontes Brings Biden’s Government GOTV Machine to Arizona Universities)

Trump Judges Save America… Again

That’s not the end of the story, of course.

In response, attorneys for the Republican National Committee, House Speaker Ben Toma (R), and Senate President Warren Petersen (R) quickly filed an emergency lawsuit with the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals—a notoriously left-wing appellate court—seeking a stay on Bolton’s decision to register anyone without documented proof of citizenship … and just got it.

Three 9th Circuit Court judges—Kenneth K. Lee, Bridget S. Bade, and Danielle Forrest, all Trump nominees—ruled on July 18 in favor of the Republican appellants, staying enforcement of Bolton’s decision to block enforcement of HB 2492’s provision requiring documented proof of citizenship before registering to vote for individuals who use Arizona’s state voter registration form.

The ruling stops short of requiring proof of citizenship for individuals who register using the more obscure national voter registration form… the form of choice for some of the Left’s top registration groups, as we’ve reported is happening now in New Mexico. (More on that later.)

But don’t let that outshine the major defeat for the radical Left, which aimed to abolish proof of citizenship requirements for all voters, potentially adding tens of thousands of non-citizens to the voter rolls—including the estimated 273,000 illegal aliens living in Arizona.

In other words, three Trump judges just saved Arizona’s elections… and potentially America this November.

(RELATED: Is this Leftist Group Registering Non-Citizens to Vote in New Mexico?)

“Even the 9th Circuit has recognized that Arizona has every right to require proof of citizenship in registering voters,” Paul Jacob, chair of Americans for Citizen Voting, told Restoration News. “We have to make certain that only citizens are voting, not non-citizens who are often here illegally.

“Sadly, the federal government’s registration form for voting in only federal elections remains an option, where there’s zero scrutiny,” he added.

“I’m absolutely delighted to see the usually liberal court’s decision,” State Sen. Ken Bennett (R) told Restoration News. Bennett previously served as Arizona Sec. of State from 2009–2015.

“Sens. Warren Petersen and Ben Toma should be congratulated on a great decision from the 9th Circuit sustaining Arizona’s ability to require proof of citizenship on state forms,” Center for Election Confidence Senior Counsel Jonathan Hauenschild told Restoration News.

“It’s a very good thing that will help us gather information on individuals who cannot provide proof of citizenship,” Hauenschild explained, which sometimes includes the homeless as well as Americans who (understandably) mistrust surrendering their personal information to the government. “This is likely the first big step toward figuring out how many non-citizens are on the rolls.”

(RELATED: The Growing Red Wave Against Non-Citizen Voting)

The Left Loses… Again

Fortunately, there’s a solution to the federal-only loophole just waiting for the right President to close it in 2025.

Restoration News has been on the bleeding edge of reporting on the Left’s decade-old campaign to normalize non-citizen voting, so they can eventually legalize it nationwide. That scheme became clear for all to see earlier this month, when 198 House Democrats—including so-called “moderate” Ruben Gallego—voted against the SAVE Act, a bill requiring proof of citizenship before registering to vote nationwide. While the bill passed the House, no one expects Senate Democrats to so much as allow a floor vote—and President Biden already announced he’d veto it, anyway.

Put simply, today’s Democrat Party actively supports non-citizen voting at the same time it’s importing tens of millions of illegal aliens devastating our communities.

Hauenschild believes that it’ll take another SAVE Act in 2025, or possibly a Supreme Court decision, to effectively close the federal-only ballot loophole, though experts are working to find state-level solutions for Arizona.

Until then, election integrity advocates will have to fight with the tools they have—and thank God they just got another one.

(READ MORE: Citizen-Only Voting Is Winning in 2024)